A telenovela is a type of limited-run serial drama popular on Filipino, Latin American, South Asian, Portuguese and Spanish television networks. The word combines tele, short for televisión or televisão, and novela, a Spanish and Portuguese word for "novel".
Telenovelas almost invariably come to an end after a run of less than one year: this makes them shorter than soap operas, but still much longer than serials. The telenovela combines drama with the 19th-century feuilleton, and naturally evolved from the Latin American radionovela, as Blanca de Lizaur determined. The medium has been used repeatedly by authorities to transmit sociocultural messages, by incorporating them into storylines, which has decreased their credibility and audiences in the long run. Recent telenovelas have evolved in the structure of their plots and in the themes that they address. Couples who kiss each other in the first minutes of the first episode sometimes stay together for many episodes before the scriptwriter splits them up. Moreover, previously taboo themes like urban violence, racism and homosexuality have been incorporated into telenovelas in more recent years.
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A telenovela is a type of limited-run serial drama popular on Filipino, Latin American, South...
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